Duffee prophetic in defeat

And in that instant, flat on his back and looking as though he couldn’t remember his name or date of birth, Todd Duffee seemed pretty darn prophetic.

Duffee had tried to control the hype, tried to temper it, tried to convince anyone and everyone that six professional wins doesn’t a championship contender make.

“All fighters have egos,” Duffee said earlier this week. “But I’m not delusional to think I’m the best fighter in the world. I’m a realist. I don’t have any grandiose ideas about anything. No question, this is my path in life, but I have a lot of improvements to make.

“I can get a lot better.”

He can start with watching for those sudden overhand rights.

The truth: Mike Russow was a goner Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden. Done. Finished. The policeman from Chicago might as well have been chasing a getaway car on foot.

He had sort of jiggled around the Octagon for most of three rounds in his heavyweight bout against Duffee at UFC 114, trailing bad on three scorecards and not all that popular with a sold-out arena.

The boos began midway through round two, and I’m fairly certain they were because Russow hadn’t just fallen down on purpose and simply allowed the card to move forward with more anticipated fights.

But he didn’t, and for it Russow earned his most notable MMA win in 16 tries. He caught Duffee with that right hand to the temple, followed it with another to the face and the next sound anyone heard was Duffee’s head smashing against canvas.

It happened at 2:35 of the final round.

It was amazing, an easy decision for knockout of the night, for which Russow earned an extra $65,000.

“I didn’t execute my gameplan,” Russow said. “The (knockout) was a shock. My goal was to hang in there the whole time. Man, it was an awful fight. I’m not very happy with it. I have a lot of work to do.”

Imagine how Duffee feels.

Think of Dolf Lundgren against an overweight night watchman. Duffee is 6 feet 3 inches, 253 pounds and, when not getting caught in fights he is dominating, an animal. Russow is listed at 6-1, 253 and one meal away from qualifying to join us who write about UFC rather than compete in it.

But even the most athletic heavyweights tire, and Duffee wasn’t the quick, attacking sort in round three as rounds one and two. He tired, and Russow saved just enough energy to take the shot. Duffee stood straight for a second too long. That’s all it took.

And suddenly, his track to stardom won’t be all that fast.

Duffee owns his own memorable knockout, one that ranks the fastest in UFC history when he took out Tim Hague in seven seconds in August of last year. It was his sixth knockout in as many tries, but what happened Saturday definitely takes much shine off that renowned punch at UFC 102.

He fights out of Las Vegas, is a native of Indiana and played linebacker at Southern Illinois before getting injured. Say this for Duffee — as others built up his reputation since the win against Hague, as the UFC marketed him as a poor kid who came from nothing, who had held every job from a janitor to the guy who swirls your Blizzard at Dairy Queen, he never once bit.

Never once played the game publicly.

“I’m fighting for me,” Duffee said. “That’s what I’m in this for. That’s my selfish reason. Everyone thinks about becoming a star, but I’m here to make money. That’s the main goal.

“This is a business, and at the end of the day, it’s about making money. I know if I win, I’m going to get paid.”

He was paid $8,000 to fight Saturday and would have made an additional $8,000 to win. There are other ways to line a fighter’s pockets — sponsorships, appearances — so finishing off someone like Russow was more about continuing to ascend the heavyweight ladder than getting rich overnight.

“I enjoy every aspect of fighting,” he said. “This is the most exciting sport out there. All my eggs are in this basket. No question.”

His basket isn’t as full with hype today.

The policeman from Chicago saw to that. Credit the lummox. That was some right.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618.